Golb Golb Golb

Today I went on what a German speaker would call a Stadtbummel, and what an english speaker would call (much less concisely) a big aimless walk around the town looking at Stuff. It's what we all do when we visit a new town, but only German came up with a word for it. Actually, I had all kinds of boring registration to do, but I won't write about that.

The streets of Vienna are fantastic. They strike the perfect balance between having almost entirely old and beautiful buildings, yet being wide enough to fit 2 lines of traffic, trams, people and bikes all on one road, and still with room for the ubiquitous plane trees to form a lovely shady canopy on sunny days. Vienna feels like a city I might want to have a real life in. Kids seem to be around a lot more (partly due to the different school hours I think), and getting anywhere is so easy and nicely divorced from the traffic so you don't feel your lungs wither so much. I will have to be careful though, even with the curtailing of my london instinct to run red lights, there is still more to think about when crossing any road here, as there are both bikes and trams that can come from unexpected directions and are somewhat quieter than a bendy bus...

My route crossed the Danube (well a bit of it anyhow) and headed on into the town centre. I navigated by my vague sense of north and by heading for the coolest architecture I could get a glimpse of at the end of each narrow street (or 'Gasse' in Ausrian). Everywhere will have to be revisited in detail but I wandered past most of the major landmarks. Stephansdom (the big central cathedral) is a bit scaffolding-y at present, but still very impressive, if not enough to beat THE cathedral in Cologne to top spot. Around the base were many people dressed in a Mozart-y way that maybe had come from a convention or something, because several were in full costume + wigs but also wearing jeans... Perhapsy favourite vista was looking out over the museum district. It is completely unbelievable, the most incredible buildings and parks, just when you think you have seen it all, another one rolls into view. The university portico dwarfs the piddly little thing that UCL is so proud of, and at their nearby campus there is a beautiful park with bars and a playground with children and a supermarket. Vienna has a lot more space than London I guess. One odd thing was the magnificent Votivkirche, which could easily rival Cologne cathedral if it had no scaffolding covered by a MASSIVE CAR ADVERT on it at present. The park there had free deck chairs and these big stone chairs around tables that I think were to commemorate some conference or other because they had the names of different countries on the back of each. People sat round them and it looked like they were at some kind of medieval conference.

Cannot wait to properly explore all the places I passed, but it could take a while. Lucky I've got a year!

The tube back costs a mere €1.80 full price single (for any distance mind), but ASAP I will get a semesterticket which is valid from 1. October to the end of January, and gives me free transport (bus, tram, train, U-bahn/tube) for only €129. ONE MONTH travelcard for tube zones 1+2 and buses in London is £65ish.

When I got back I got into a friendly discussion about healthcare with my Ecuadorian-Austrian flatmate (who has also lived in the US and Spain). Never argue healthcare with a politics student, especially not one who has lived in all those countries.